November 12th, 2016, 8:00 PM

On November 12th, 2016, ChamberLab returned with an exciting program of all-new music, featuring new duets for special guest violinists Fadi Iskandar and Tamara Khachatryan, plus many works for the sprawling and ever-changing ChamberLab ensemble.

Mainstay composers Chris Black, Marco Rosano, Tony Rosano, and Samantha Bounkeua were joined by ChamberLab newcomers Seth Bedford and Jay Vosk. We were thrilled to have returned to the Hotel Congress on a Second Saturday for this free concert!

Our Featured Guests:

Fadi Iskandar, violin. Fadi Iskandar was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1971. He studied violin at the Arabic Institute of Music in Aleppo, and he started teaching violin in the same institute in 1990. He began playing with the Aleppo Chamber Orchestra in 1995, serving as its director from 2000 to 2008.

He married Tamara Khachatryan in 2001 and they have performed concerts together in Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Tunisia, Algeria, Canada, and the Ivory Coast, Australia. They moved to Tucson in November of 2012. Since this time they have played solo and duet performances at Arizona Senior Academy, Grace to the Nation Church, and the University of Arizona. He is a violin teacher at Tucson Music and Dance Academy.

Tamara Khachatryan, violin. Tamara Khachatryan was born in Armenia where she fell in love with the violin at five years of age. She studied through childhood at the Sarajef School of Music, graduating from the Arno Babajanyan University in 1997. In 1998 she moved to Aleppo, Syria, where she met Fadi Iskandar, and they were married in 2001.

She moved to Tucson in August, 2012 due to the extreme violence in Syria. She has participated as a violinist accompanying the Story and Store Children’s Project at the Temple of Music and Art in downtown Tucson in fall of 2013, and she has played with the Arizona Symphony Orchestra (first and second violin), as well as solo at a music festival at the Desert Museum. She is a teacher at Music and Dance Academy.

Ensemble and Composers:

Mindi Acosta, flute. Mindi performs with the Tucson Repertory Orchestra, the Crowded Quartet (TRO wind quintet), the Tucson Duo Project, and several other groups. She recently performed at the National Flute Association Convention in California.	Seth Bedford, composer. Composer, arranger, lyricist, violist, accordionist, vocalist Seth Bedford blends the musical idioms of Weimar Kabarett, American Jazz, Tin Pan Alley, French chanson, tango, New Wave and a variety of other musical sources.
Cassandra Bendickson, bassoon. Freelancer and sometime arts manager, Cassandra is a ChamberLab veteran, runs a growing private lesson studio, and plays extensively around Tucson in chamber ensembles and various orchestras.	Chris Black, double bass. ChamberLab founder and artistic director Chris Black has composed new music for basoon, flute, violin, cello, and bass, as well as three new pieces for violin duet.
Samantha Bounkeua, violin, composer. Classical violininst gone rogue, Samantha Bounkeua is the founding member & song-writer of Tucson’s newest local indie-blues-rock band, Half-Broke Town.	Jessica Campbell, bassoon, contrabassoon. Jessica Campbell has played third bassoon and contrabassoon with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra since 2008 and is a regular freelancer in southern Arizona.
Cat Cantrell, Oboe/English horn. A nomadic musician based in New York City, she is a member of the Tucson Symphony and regularly performs with many groups along the East Coast and in the UK.	Jeffrey Holsen, Double Bass. Assistant Principal Bass with the Tucson Symphony for 29 years, Principal Bass with The Tucson Pops, and a graduate of the U of A School of Music.
Joseph Pagán, viola. Joseph has been a member of the Tucson Symphony viola section since 1989, and has served as Assistant Principal Violaof the Peter Britt Festival and the Cascade Festival of Music since 1998 and 2000 respectively.	Marco Rosano, piano. Tucson born musician Marco Rosano is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist and composer. For this concert, Marco has composed “A Dog, A Squirrel, and Two Violins” violins and bass.
Tony Rosano, composer. Tony plays trombone and tuba and is a mixed media artist. For this concert he has composed “The Smoking Chicken”, which is about a chicken that really likes cigarettes.	Anne Gratz, violoncello. Anne Gratz is Principal Cello of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Tucson Symphony String Quartet, True Concord Voices and Orchestra, and Tucson Pops Orchestra.
Jay Vosk has written over 100 compositions for a variety of media, and is the recipient of a Tucson-Pima Arts Fellowship as well as an Arizona Resident Composer Award sponsored by the National Symphony Orchestra.	Benjamin DeGain is a frequent contributor to ChamberLab, and plays vibraphone and percussion with a great number of Tucson bands such as Gamma Like Very Ultra and Naim Amor.

This concert is made possible in part through the generous support of the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music. Learn more about them and the wonderful music they bring to Tucson at www.arizonachambermusic.org.